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Well, what seemed like a long time in the future is now next week, and I'm scratching my head wondering where I'm going to find the time to build this, but also really looking forward to it. Why? Because I have a soft spot for the 262, and have almost all the 1:48 Hobby Boss kits, and a couple more besides in a larger scale that we won't mention. I've been waiting for the glass-nosed one to come out for ages now, as I once saw one with a conversion in 1:32 (damn!), and that's where this all started. I have the kit, purchased with my own hands, with a set of Eduard wheels, and I'm hoping to get a set of those amazingly realistic HGW seatbelts to add a bit of sparkle to the cockpit, as there doesn't seem to be a specific Eduard PE set for it, and I can't be bothered hunting through the rest of my kits to see if I have any PE hidden there.

So - apart from wheels and belts, this is going to be as close to OOB as I get these days, and rather than post up a blank place-holder thread I've taken a snap of the box contents that proves I haven't started it Actually, I have removed one part from the sprue, so I could check the fit of the bulkhead with the metal forward bay. It was not good, because the white metal was a little bit warped, so out came the pliers

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@Arniec I built the Trimaster/Dragon A-1/U4 with 50mm Bordkanone back in 2013, and I thought the fit was a bit with some instances of the instructions having better detail than the kit! Turned out ok though, on balance

There's a link to the build thread at the bottom of the RFI, which you can find 'ere.

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The painting instructions for the RB conversion show the aircraft pictured on the front of the box to be the two late war greens and soft mottling . I will get a clear pic up on my thread . No photo's of the aircraft (with the poles in the front ) have been found with bomb racks on .

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Speaking of colours, I was thinking maybe I could do some wood decal on the bombadier's section as if they'd not yet gotten round to painting it. I wonder if that was actually done? I've not been able to find many photos out there of this variant.

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Just so you don't think I'm slacking, here's a bit of a progress report of sorts. First thing to do was get all those cockpit parts off the sprues, tidy up the sprue gates and moulding seams then figure out how best to build up as many of them as I can without making painting difficult. I've got the cockpit tub in as few bits as I can, with the seat left so it'll pivot on the bottom mount to enable me to paint behind it. The gunsight, although probably not fitted on this gun-free 262 had its plastic lenses replaced by some acetate, with the edges painted to look like proper glass. I had to go a bit of fiddling with the metal bomb-aimer's floor to get it to fit the plastic bulkhead, and then had to use some of my collection of custom sanding tools to get rid of the highly inconvenient ejector-pin marks inside the wheel-well "coffin". I replaced the prominent rivets with some Archer 3D transfers once that was cleaned up.

As the BA's area looked a bit bland, and I've seen that his canopy has a framework inside, I replicated that with some styrene strip, and masked that up, polishing the little side-windows that HB seem to have frosted over by mistake. I used some Eduard scribing templates to cut 4 bits of masking tape to the correct shape for the inside and outside, as I'm painting the inside of his area, possibly with a view to posing it open maybe? Then I added some ribs with the same spacing to the blank sides of his cubby-hole, and gave it a little lip with the same type of stock. next up is a bit of primer, then some RLM66 and a bit of 02

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well you're off to a nice start. It seem strange that they left the BA's position so basic especially seeing how much can be seen from the outside. Maybe they had no idea so they left it out and frosted that section so you don't notice? I've noticed they do some strange things at times.

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The rear section should be solid. The front section is roughly where the BA's torso & head would be, with his view forward afforded by that streamlined blister. There's a bomb-sight at the front of his cubby, but where he'd keep his legs is a bit of a mystery. The nose gear "coffin" seems to take up the majority of the room

I primered everything yesterday and added some brake hoses with retaining straps to the main gear beforehand. These have now entered the spray booth for a healthy dose of RLM02 and RLM66 in appropriate places. Meanwhile I'm also doing a bit on the P-63E KingCobra I'm finishing off too:

As you can see - LOTS of assemblies to deal with. I've had to move a few bits around as the colours have gone down, to avoid embarrassing overspray of the wrong colour here & there. Lots of detail painting will be in my future.

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Cheers fellas - just getting some detail painting done over the main colours now, and applying some of the decals on the instrument panels. They're a bit of a kludge however, and I've had to cut sections up to get them to snuggle down better, and I've also left some bits off as I can paint the bits better with my wobbly hands and expensive paint brush

Thanks to @Mottlemaster for the detail shots of the big conversion, as I was actually going to ask to see some of the extra detail, so you've saved me an ask

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I had a daft idea the other day, which involved a Luftwaffe 3-tonne T-Stoff tanker, which I tried to find in 1:48 and failed miserably. I did however find the chassis done by Tamiya, which is their German 3ton 4x2 cargo truck, so I thought I could scratch build a tanker from this basic kit, just replacing the flat-bed with a tanker-shaped part. No big deal, right? Why do I do these things to myself? The kit arrived today, so I'm going to have a look at it and see what's involved. With it being a truck I can quite seasily build up the chassis and cab, then try my hand at making a tank for the back, and see how that goes. Why would I want to do that? Well check out this little pic, and see what you think. I'm sorry I don't know if it's copyrighted, so if it is, please let me know and I'll acknowledge it

Can anyone help with the shape of the towing bar there? I'm not too familiar with this sort of thing